When a Konkani textbook hero showed up to inspire school students in Goa

Panaji: The new Konkani textbook implemented in Class VI contains mostly localised content, leaving students in wonderment. “Are these Goan heroes real?” they often ask their teachers.On Monday, Akriti Kumari, a Class VI student of L D Samant Memorial High School, Porvorim, was left wide-eyed when one of these heroes from her textbook walked into her school.She was excited and nervous, but having prepared for this moment, she knew what to do when Padma Shri awardee and Goa’s first Arjuna award winner, Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, stood before her in the flesh.“I got him to sign the chapter,” said Akriti.

“After our teacher taught us the lesson on Shankhwalkar, I asked her, ‘Is he still around?’ Later, when we heard he was coming to our school to interact with us, my friend and I were trying to build a picture in our minds of how he must look. The image was of the illustration we saw in the textbook. I was taken by complete surprise when he stood there before us.”The idea of inviting Shankhwalkar was first mooted by Konkani teacher Prajakta Gaonkar.

“The lesson on him, ‘Haanv Parat Maidanar Denvlo’ (I have returned to the field), speaks of his struggles and how he overcame them. Since he is a son of the soil, I thought, why not bring him to meet the children? They were all delighted,” said Gaonkar.Shankhwalkar received a hero’s welcome on Monday morning, with the school football team — wearing jerseys and holding footballs — applauding him. Later, 150 students from Class VI and the school’s football team from Class VIII listened in rapt attention as the former India captain and goalkeeper explained how he made a comeback from a career-threatening injury.“We are part of the school football team and had heard of his achievements. There were great lessons for us to learn from his narration of how he trained,” said Class VIII student Atharv Devji. There was understandably a clamour not just to listen to Shankhwalkar but also to get autographs. “Some students got their footballs from home to get them autographed,” said headmistress Nita Salunke.Considered one of India’s best goalkeepers, Shankhwalkar had a 25-year-long career which kicked off in 1970 and culminated in 1995.

In 1983, he became the first footballer from Goa to captain the Indian football team. Shankhwalkar made it a point to explain to the students the episode mentioned in the textbook on how he made a comeback from a hand injury that threatened to cut short his growing career.“I too was once a young boy, as big as you, and I did not know where my journey would take me,” Shankhwalkar told the children. “Take the step you need to today, seize the day, and the results will show tomorrow.”The first, and only, Goan footballer to lead his team to two consecutive triumphs at the national football championship for the Santosh Trophy in 1983 (Bengal) and 1984 (Tamil Nadu), Shankhwalkar also emphasised time management. “I would come back from school, take a nap, complete my homework, and be ready by 4-4.30pm for football. After I returned from playing, I would start studying what was taught in the class for the day.

Then I went straight to bed. Yet I lost focus in Class IX and was detained. But I persevered, and when my teacher said he is proud of me after all those years when I won the Arjuna award, it was a great feeling,” Shankhwalkar told the children.For the students too, particularly Akriti, who clutched her autographed textbook, it was a day like no other at school.